Album refreshes non-stop and freezes!

Summary: Page starts refreshing and subsequently freezes you can't view any more photos or do anything else on Smugmug.com.

This is a problem I've always had with Smugmug but I had hoped that after 3 years, I wouldn't have to deal with it. Smugmug pages (especially within albums) are constantly freezing. I'd be reviewing photos and notice that even though I'm clicking "next" or "previous" the next photo isn't showing up. That's when I look up and notice that the page has started refreshing itself, again – for no apparent reason. And most of the time, it doesn’t stop – I usually end up having to close the browser because it’s frozen and I can’t do anything else - leave it for a while (in some cases hours or just till the next day to preserve my sanity) and just think happy thoughts.

It’s one thing for me to suffer the problem and bear it, it’s another when clients experience it. In fact, I lost a client last year because of it. After shooting 2 events for her, she finally informed me that her guests had complained of the site constantly freezing while viewing the photos, so they had to just abandon it and come back to it later (if they remembered), which just killed the excitement of seeing the pictures. She said after the first event she didn’t understand what they were talking about but months later after I sent her the album for her 2nd event – she herself experienced it and had to e-mail me about it, clearly frustrated. That was when I realized I had wrongly assumed it was just happening to me and it wasn’t my computer. I have since worked on several other computers and it’s clearly a problem with the site.

I honestly find this inconvenience to be the type of problem free photo sites could exhibit, it is absolutely unacceptable on a paid (premium) website. The point of paying $150 (which is no chump change) is so nothing slows your workflow or hinders a client’s enjoyment when viewing what they’ve paid for.